Evanston Mayor Biss tops crowded Democratic primary for Illinois’ 9th Congressional District

Daniel Biss, the mayor of Evanston and a former state legislator, has won the crowded Democratic primary for Illinois’ Ninth Congressional District. 

Biss maintained his lead in the polls over at least 14 other Democratic candidates, including top challengers Kat Abughazaleh and State Sen. Laura Fine (9th), to secure the nomination to replace U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who spent more than 26 consecutive years in the seat before she announced last year she would not be seeking reelection. 

“This race had everything,” Biss said on Tuesday, standing before a crowd of approximately 200 supporters inside the Double Clutch Brewing Company in Evanston. “It had fundamental questions about who we are going to be as a Democratic party. Are we going to concede in advance, or are we going to fight? Are we going to double down on our progressive values or are we going to shrink away from protecting the most vulnerable?”

“Tonight, the voters spoke clearly: We are going to stand up, we’re going to fight, we will not back down, and we will fight for the progressive values that are the values not only of this district but of this whole country,” Biss said, and the room broke into cheers. 

Biss won 29.5% of the vote (or 34,216 votes) with 92% of total ballots counted as of 11 p.m. on Tuesday, The New York Times reported. Abughazaleh trailed at 25.9% of the vote (30,075) and Fine was at 20.2% (23,398).

Biss will now face off against John Elleson, an Arlington Heights pastor and the winner of the district’s Republican primary, in the upcoming midterm election on Nov. 3, 2026. 

Biss, 48, was elected the mayor of Evanston in 2021. Before then, he was elected to both Illinois State House’s 17th District and Illinois State Senate, in 2010 and 2012, respectively. He won endorsements from U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth, Elizabeth Warren and Schakowsky, among others.

Like Abughazaleh and Fine, Biss signaled support for impeaching President Donald Trump and addressing rising costs through measures like antitrust laws, the Evanston Roundtable reported. 

He made headlines last year after confronting Greg Bovino, the then-commander of U.S. Immigration and Custom and Enforcement, outside a gas station in Evanston, as WTTW reported.

Elleson, 63, secured the Republican nomination over the three other Republican candidates Paul Friedman, Rocio Cleveland and Dongbo Mark Su. 

The other 12 Democratic candidates on the ballot for Illinois’ Ninth District were Justin Ford, Mike Simmons, Bushra Amiwala, Patricia A. Brown, Jeff Cohen, Phil Andrew, Nick Pyati, Kat Sam Polan, Bethany Johnson, Howard Rosenblum, Hoan Huynh and Mark Arnold Fredrickson. 

Biss described the primary as “a heck of a race” given its 15 total candidates. He thanked them for running in this “pivotal moment to try to heal our country,” and congratulated Abughazaleh, Fine and Simmons by name.

“I am thrilled and I think you can see from the speech that he made how sincere he is to care for people, to do the job that needs to be done,” Schakowsky said after Biss finished his remarks. “I was so proud of him and so excited that he’s now going to be taking my place.”

The Ninth District

Illinois’ 9th Congressional District boasts a population of about 746,000 people, according to the 2020 U.S. Census, and covers 167 miles over parts of Cook, Lake and McHenry counties.

The district’s southern edge starts in north Chicago before it stretches up over communities like Evanston, Wilmette and Skokie, and extends northwest over Niles, Northfield, Glenview, parts of Prospect Heights, Buffalo Grove, Wauconda, Cary and Algonquin. 

Skokie, which boasts a population of 67,824 people, according to the 2020 Census, carries about 9% of the district’s total potential vote share. 

Niles Township — which includes Skokie, Morton Grove, Niles, Glenview, Lincolnwood and Golf — cast 13.5% of the ballots in the last 2022 midterm election and 11.5% of the ballots in the previous 2024 presidential election, the Evanston Roundtable reported. 

Notably, Fine won endorsements from U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, a Democrat seeking reelection for Illinois’ 10th Congressional District, and Vote Assyrian, a political group with ties to Skokie, which according to some estimates boasts 20,000 Assyrian people. 

The crowded race of candidates also included locals Amiwala, who currently serves as a member of the Skokie School Board District 73.5 Board of Education; and Andrew, a former FBI negotiator and gun-violence survivor from Wilmette.

Yet the race for the district’s Democratic primary narrowed earlier this month with Biss, Abughazaleh and Fine leading in a poll commissioned by the Evanston Roundtable. 

Biss remained in the top ranking with 24% of 741 respondents apparently indicating on March 10 they would vote for him. Abughazaleh led closely behind with 20% of respondents, apparently gaining momentum with a +3% jump compared to when respondents were polled in February.

Fine led with 14% of respondents, Simmons 10%, Phil Andrew 7% and Bushra Amiwala 6% while one in six voters last week were still undecided, according to the Evanston Roundtable. 

A heated race over AIPAC influence

The race became heated in part as top contenders pointed fingers over who was supported by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the nation’s largest pro-Israel lobbying group that, according to Politico, funneled more than $21 million into Illinois’ four open congressional races. 

Elect Chicago Women and Affordable Chicago Now, two political action committees with ties to AIPAC, spent at least $10.9 million in the Ninth District, The New York Times reported. 

In a Feb. 25 debate televised on Fox, a moderator asked Fine what she made of the more than $1 million Elect Chicago Women apparently spent in support of her campaign.

Fine, who is Jewish, described the funds as “dark money” her campaign did not coordinate with AIPAC for, and alleged Biss had previously sought AIPAC’s support. 

Biss, who is also Jewish, said he would “never have accepted AIPAC support” and described Fine’s campaign as “bankrolled by AIPAC and MAGA donors.”

“This is the exact type of hypocrisy that people are sick of in politics — over and over again, the lying, the bickering over who likes AIPAC more,” Abughazaleh, who was endorsed by Track AIPAC, a group opposed to the lobby, said on Feb. 25. 

Amiwala, another progressive candidate, issued a March 13 statement that her campaign was aware the Chicago Progressive Partnership, a group apparently funded by AIPAC, had placed an ad supporting her, but she had never engaged with the lobby and it was “using her good name to do toxic work.”

As Punchbowl News reported, the negative view voters have of Israel’s actions in Gaza means AIPAC’s support for candidates like Fine could prove detrimental to their campaign, even in a community like Illinois’ 9th District which has a significant Jewish population. 

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